“Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?—every, every minute?”
This is a quote from ‘Our Town’, a famous play by Thornton Wilder. I saw a revival recently and remembered how I last enjoyed the play when I was 12 years old because my big brother was in his high school adaptation.
The line above is spoken by the character Emily after her death. She has returned to the after-world after a visit to earth on a typical day when she was 12 years old. She relived that day, albeit invisible, and was completely overwhelmed by the simple beauty of everyday moments of life. She stands in the kitchen watching her Mother make breakfast and hurry her kids off to school and begs her Mother to, ” just take a moment and look at me Ma, really look at me.” She notices how we human beings do not seem to appreciate the sheer wonder and beauty of life. Now that she is dead, she sees how much she missed.
The funny thing is that what I thought I remembered wasn’t even in the play> I thought there was a scene where Emily felt the warmth of the sun and a cool breeze on her face and marveled at the pleasure of those sensations. Perhaps that was my interpretation of the scene in the kitchen. No matter. It all points to the same thing: we simply do not appreciate what we have. We have lost the wonder that we had as children.
Of course we aren’t kids anymore. Life has handed us all sorts of challenges and trauma that have had their effect upon us. We know that life isn’t all a bowl of cherries. But have we allowed our life experiences to rob of us all that life is and all that life has gifted us? Have we lost our capacity for gratitude?
I was walking the dogs yesterday on a glorious spring day with the the trees in full bloom and a crystal clear sky. I got it. I said a little thank you for the moment. Took the time to appreciate the day day’s offering and was grateful.
Try it.
